STATE OF EUROPE.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 699, 14 April 1852, Page 3

STATE OF EUROPE.

[From the Morning Herald, November 26.] FRANCE. Paris, Monday Morning. The Moniteur contains two decrees, by which M. de Casahianca, the Minister of Commerce, is named Minister of Finance, and M. Lefebvre Durufle is named Minister of Commerce. This gentleman is a member of the Assembly, and of moderate opinions. The Debats solemnly advocates the adjournment of the bill touching the responsibility of the President and his Ministers, as it is impossible at such a moment as this to discuss such a bill in a calm, just, impartial, and passionless spirit. It in fact supplicates the friends of order not to re-awaken the same subjects of irritation which had so lately agitated the chamber, alarmed the country, and brought the two powers of the state to a point of conflict. The two powers of the state, as the Debats justly remarks, are mutually weakening each other, in presence of a revolutionary party, which is watching to take advantage of their faults. At the same time this paper throws the blame of a situation which it is trying to prevent becoming worse upon the Government, which, by its project of law for restoring universal suffrage, has thrown parties into confusion. Yet it is understood that ministers will not accept the modifications which, introduced into the Municipal Bill, it is proposed to apply to the electoral law of the 31st May. No member of the Cabinet took any part in the late discussions of the various clauses of the Municipal law, while two ministers, M. Fortoul and M. Casabiunca, actually voted with the minority ngainst it. Instead, therefore, of accepting the compromise offered by the Right

benches, the Cabinet will probablv present anew I i the bill which the Assemblv threw out on a first reading. The Constitutionnel has a furious article against the assemblv, in which there are some assertions of a grave character. It tells us that on Monday last we were within a hair’s breadth of civil war. If on that evening the Assemblv had adopted the proposition of the questors, the “ conspirators” would have followed up their blow by the arrest and impeachment of Ministers ; and if the first move should have proved successful, they would then, according to the organ of the Government itself, have attempted to arrest the President. “ Certainly (adds the writer) nothing could be more wild, more monstrous, or more criminal than such a design, and vet it is the pure truth, so notorious, in fact, that there is no one in the political world who is ignorant of the details of the plan.” The same authority states, that for the last eighteen months there exists a flagrant conspiracy against Louis Napclcon, composed of Legitimists and Orleanists, who, at the time when General Changarnier occupied the Tuileries, gravely deliberated the question of seizing his person and sending him to Vincennes. The same conspirators are accused of plotting at this moment, their object being to create a dictatorship in the person of General Changarnier, acting under the control of the actual Assembly, which would declare itself permanent. Defeated in their object by the vote of Monday evening, it is affirmed that the “ White conspirators.” have now turned to the Montagnards, and offer to substitute General Cavaignac for General Changarnier, in fact, thev are ready, for sake of getting rid of Louis Napoleon, to run the risk of a Red Republican Convention. Such are the charges which M. Granier de Cassagnac puts forth this morning in the Constitutionnel, and they are so extravagant as to be hardly credible. The public will nevertheless learn that at the Elysee such things are believed, and they will conclude that those who feel persuaded that there is on the part of the Assembly a settled design to destroy the Executive, will think themselves justified to defeat such designs according to their best means. All that the Assemblv wants is to get a legal title over the army. Now, the writer in the Constitutionnel insinuates broadly that the army would not obey any order of the Assemblv. All this looks very like preparing for a conflict. As in the case of the Questors’ Bill, the Executive was prepared to repel the project of law which proposes to define the duties and responsibility of the President, and to render him liable to pains and penalties. The National promises the support of the Republicans for anv proposition having for its object to confirm the right of the Assembly to provide for its security.

AUSTRIA. Vienna, November 21. The intelligence of the state of things in Tuscany, along the whole coast of Italy, and especially in Rome itself, causes a good deal of disquiet in the diplomatic circles. It coincides entirely with the statements given by the French journals, that the Neapolitan embassy at London has found out a plot for landing a large store of arms in Sicily, and that the Neapolitan Government had given orders to the coasting cruisers to seize these arms. It is melancholy to think that there are good reasons for supposing that this interference was not unknown to the English Government. In our circles it is much questioned whether the French troops may be depended upon in the event of a collision with the populace, and the general answer is. they may be depended upon so long as the French Government itself retains its seat. Austria meanwhile is prepared for every contingency. The army in Italy remains on a footing of war, ready at the first call. The Bavarian Secretary of Legation is now here, being the bearer of ratifications of the treaties concluded between Austria and Bavaria, first, for the regulation of the navigation of the Danube: secondly, for the settlement of the Austro-Bavarian boundary, between Braunau and Passau; thirdly, for the regulation of the mutual boundary river navigation ; and fourthly, additional articles to the Railway junction Convention. The Government has concluded a treaty with Servia for the sale of its salt, A considerable revenue is hereby opened to Austria, for the salt is to be delivered immediately, and the payments are to be made upon the spot in silver currency.— Wiener Zeitung, Nov. 21. The Steam Navigation Company of the Austrian Lloyd’s has just published its report, which, as might be expected, shows a large and steady increase of receipts. Total receipts from the first of January to the end of September, 1849, 1,609,245 florins; ditto the first nine months of 1850, 1,577,983 florins ; ditto the first nine months of 1851, 2,000,967 florins. —Hamburgh Borsenhalle, November 22.

PRUSSIA. Berlin, November 23. The Prussian Government has addressed an invitation to the Hanse Towns to hold a conference, either at Berlin or at Frankfort, for the purpose of regulating the general affairs of emigration. The Prussian Government, among other arrangements, proposes that every shipowner who takes charge of a body of emigrants who are Prussian subjects shall, in future, be obliged to give security to a large amount, as a guarantee for the punctual execution of the conditions made with the emigrants. The Government is now more than ever resolved to remove every restrictive measure which has impeded the commerce in corn, and to aflord the greatest liberty as well to the import as to the export of corn. DENMARK. The last intelligence from Copenhagen represents the state of affairs in a rather serious light. The Casino party, which provoked the crisis, is again master—it rules the Government and is trying to efface the soveteign authority of the King. It is well known that the revolution of March, 1848, was accomplished by the aid of the lowest of the people. The

same measures are now resorted to by the same leaders of the Casino party to stir up the people and excite them to make a second revolutionary demonstration in their favour, and to replace them at the head of affairs, from which it was hoped they were for ever excluded since the moderate and reasonable party took the helm.

Independently of this, the attitude of the two great German powers, Austria and Prussia, against the existing state of things in Denmark becomes more decided every day, and all indicates the firm resolution on their part to compel the Danish Government to fulfil the stipulations and the conventions in regard to the two duchies, concluded at London and at Warsaw, and to which all the great powers of Europe have fully adhered. The arrival of Copenhagen of General Rahe Von Bodisco, bearing a second autograph letter from the Emperor to the King confirms the fact that Russia urges the Danish Government as energetically as the Austrian and Prussian Governments to rise from the untenable position which again menaces the peace and tranquillity of Europe. The Emperor concludes by expressing his sincere expectation that the question will be settled before the close of the year. —Hamburgh Borsenhalle, November 22.